Amazon's Alexa Could Be Your New (Built-In) Roommate

Alexa has been smartening up homes since 2014, but for those who don't want to bother with the setup process, a new Amazon program will let apartment building owners offer units with Alexa built in. With Alexa for Residential, property owners set up Alexa devices across units, making the move to voice-assistant life easier for tenants moving in. Renters control their apartment's smart features--set alarms and reminders, get the news, and more via voice commands--without linking their Amazon accounts or buying an Echo device themselves. If residents want to link their Amazon accounts to their apartment's smart devices for full control of their privacy settings, they can. They can log out at any time, and smart devices are reset at move-out.